Cheney blocked official's promotion

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press Writer

Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over President Bush's eavesdropping program, a Senate committee learned Wednesday.

In a written account, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said Cheney warned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he would oppose the promotion of a department official who once threatened to resign over the program.

Gonzales eventually decided against trying to promote Patrick Philbin to principal deputy solicitor general, Comey said.

"I understood that someone at the White House communicated to Attorney General Gonzales that the vice president would oppose the appointment if the attorney general pursued the matter," Comey wrote. "The attorney general chose not to pursue it.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070607/ap_on_go_co/fired_prosecutors

---

"Mr. Comey has confirmed what we suspected for a while that White House hands guided Justice Department business," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is leading the Senate's investigation. "The vice president's fingerprints are all over the effort to strong-arm Justice on the NSA program."


WP has it up too
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602297.html?hpid=topnews

[aquart]

1. Little fingers that leave fingerprints

perhaps should be cut off. (It's what his Saudi friends would do.)

[Cobalt-60]

6. cheneyfingers

not very appetizing.

[Blaze Diem]

11. Even with Ranch Dip..lots of it

& hot sauce marinade...mmmm...
still "eeewwwww" Dicks dirty creepy fingers..

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

22. Naw. They're self-dipping in the blood of innocents.

[Blaze Diem]

25. Haaaaaaaaaa...Where do you find pics like this????

too good!

[williesgirl]

2. When are we going to finally IMPEACH these fuckers? recommended

[annabanana]

3. When and if there's a repug or two with guts +/or a conscience.

(i.e., don't hold your breath)

[frogcycle]

14. hey, after some of the comments in their "debate" last night

maybe they are figuring out he really is toxic.

The one thing you can count on with pugs - they'd turn on their own mother to save their skins

[keopeli]

4. More yapping from Schumer. Sorry, Chuck, either put up or shut up. Your words are powerless. n/t

[Zensea]

10. ***

never mind

[anotherdrew]

5. impeachment is not enough. their lives need to be ruined, they need to become broken men, penniless

how long will it take? and you just know people will loose interest in prosecuting them once they're out of office.

[frogcycle]

15. all they got al capone for was tax evasion

but he died in prison of syphilis slowly eating away at his brain...

I'd settle for that

[cal04]

7. Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps

Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges Interference

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007; Page A03

Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday.

The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602297.html?hpid=topnews

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Does Philibin have recourse for this?

[KoKo]

9. Okay....What's the next step. It's scary that Comey still won't say WHAT this program was...

and that NOW the program is ongoing under another Department. How do we know that what they supposedly FIXED (Comey) wasn't undone when the program was moved out of Justice Dept. Supervision?

AND...what the hell is a Vice President doing running this own intelligence operation and meddling in the affairs of the Justice Department? If this was Al Gore or any other VP they would have been long gone.

Shows that the P-Resident is the very pupped that we on the liberal internets have been saying since he was "installed." He's only a ceremonial President. It was Dick Cheney who was installed P-Resident and that was the PLAN all along.

That everyone has participated in this massive power grab by a VP...that includes both our Repugs and Dems is disgusting. Our Congress had to know this from the beginning but Daschle did Nothing...even when Jeffords switched parties and neither did the House ...to stop this.

They had to know that Cheney was VP...why did they allow any of this?

I hope that this is a smoking gun for Cheney. There's just too much piling up...but WaPo puts in on Page A-3 and most Americans just don't get the WaPo and will never hear about it. Most Americans didn't get Watergate either until Nixon had to resign...so I guess there's some hope there.... HOPE!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. Write to yuor Congressman now! WP is gagged

[DirtyDawg]

13. What Schumer Should Have Said...

...was. "I've been researching all the amendments and articles associated with the Constitution and have determined that the Founding Fathers did indeed intend for us to be able to Impeach a President, or in this case Vice President, on the grounds that he or she is fundamentally a bastard. Accordingly, articles drawn on that basis can be submitted without having to present anything in the form of 'evidence'...everybody already knows that there's no end to the prick and we'll all be better off if he would just go away."...Yeah, that's what I would have loved to have heard.

[Straight Shooter]

16. Cheney strong-arms the White House, the CIA, and the Department of Justice.

Why does everyone he deals with give him what he wants? What is he, Rasputin? :wtf:

[Hestia]

17. I think more of a Svengali type of character - either that or he has a

Hoover type file on each and every person who works in DC. It's the only thing I can think of. It just states the case of clean living.

[notadmblnd]

24. my guess? He's swinging a big dick.. I mean stick and they're all in love with it.

:shrug:

[DemoTex]

18. Too bad Shakespeare did not know of Cheney.

I see a comic-tragedy of epic proportions brewing, and I'm laughing my ass off.

[lovuian]

19. Never in the History of our Nation has a Vice President had

this power

Cheney has abused his power

over and over and over again
and other Vice Presidents have not gotten away with this

but this Congress and Justice Department has allowed him

[libodem]

20. Cheney is the worst

pure evil. If Bush weren't the anti christ he would be. Ever go to that Bush is the antichrist site? It will do your heart good in these trying times:)

[ToeBot]

21. Do ya suppose any of the Democratic presidential contenders are willing to constrain,

in law, the powers of the Executive? I don't think so either.

[loudsue]

23. None that are RUNNING. But Al Gore would, and Dennis Kucinich

prolly would, if he were elected.

:kick: